Star Wars Screen Writer Explains How Solo Was In The Works Before Disney’s Lucasfilm Acquisition

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Solo: A Star Wars Story might be the fourth Star Wars film to see release since Disney’s acquisition of Lucasfilm back in 2012, but the Star Wars spinoff was long in the works before the deal became official.

Legendary Star Wars writer Lawrence Kasdan and his Solo: A Star Wars Story co-writer, son Jonathan, Kasdan, recently spoke with Comic Book about the details behind the project. During the interview with the publication, Lawrence Kasdan revealed that he was actually brought in to write Solo way back when George Lucas was still in charge of Lucasfilm.

According to the screenwriter, he expressed doubt about writing a fourth Star Wars film for the studio, but then Lucas and Kathleen Kennedy then told him that it would be a film about Han.

"George and [Kathleen Kennedy] had decided that, as the company went on without George, and Kathy would run it, that part of what they were going to do was continue the Star Wars movies, and they had an idea for a bunch of 'em," Lawrence told the publication. "When they called me up there, I said, 'I don't know if I'm up for a fourth Star Wars movie,' and they said, 'Well, what if it was Han?'

Kennedy and Lucas knew that Kasdan loved Han, and the scriptwriter took the bait after he said that he could do anything he wanted with the project.

"And I said, 'Well, I love Han,' and they sort of hit my button, you know? I was told that I could do anything I wanted with it, and that was kind of irresistible. It took off from there."

One of the main reasons the film was put off was because of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the sequel trilogy installment that ended up becoming Harrison Ford’s sendoff from Lucasfilm’s galaxy far, far away. After The Force Awakens’ success, Lucasfilm then brought out Rogue One, the franchise’s first spinoff, and then the second chapter in the sequel trilogy, Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

Solo has certainly been a long time coming. We can’t wait to see Solo: A Star Wars Story when it hits cinemas on May 25.

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Tiny Diapana is a literary dilettante and warrior of the written word. She has a penchant for poetry, with some of her compositions seeing publication in anthologies. Tiny is drawn to magic realism (eg. Salman Rushdie, Etgar Kerret) and books that are stylistic and Kafkaesque. Her free time is often spent on boardgames, books, manga, comics, pop culture series, movies and practicing bass.